It’s now official: In the Vale of Tears is listed as the winner of the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Prize at the prize website (see also the announcement at the Historical Materialism page and at the University of Newcastle). The award was for the book and for the whole Criticism of Heaven and Earth series, which is just as well, since I have always been a little ambivalent about In the Vale of Tears. All the same, I am somewhat gobsmacked by the fact that the other short-listed books were Frederic Jameson, The Antinomies of Realism, Costas Lapavistas, Profiting without Producing: How Finance Exploits Us All, and John Saul and Patrick Bond, South Africa – The Present as History.

My good comrade at Louisproyekt has just written a lovely review of my work, called ‘Roland f**king Boer?’ This is arguably the review of reviews, for he calls me an ‘asshole’, ‘clown’ and full of ‘garbage’. I’ve been glowing since I read it. Apparently, it is in response to the announcement that I won the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Prize for 2014. However, it seems to me that my good comrade is missing even the slightest sense of humour – apart from misspelling ‘mustache’.

The publication of the fifth volume, In the Vale ofTears, means that The Criticism of Heaven and Earth is complete. Ten years in the making, with 2000 pages of text, it deals with Western Marxism and religion. And you can get it as a box set – the ideal Christmas gift. Who could want more for a long summer of reading? Or, if you wish to wait for the paperback of In the Vale of Tears, due out in July, you can get the box set at a much cheaper price from Haymarket Books.

Given that the paperbacks of the Criticism of Heaven and Earth series (see the side bar) are published by the friendly lefties at Haymarket Books, I have no option but to pass on the Christmas cheer:

A 30% holiday discount on all Haymarket titles is currently being offered through www.haymarketbooks.org. This sale runs until 5 January. To receive the discount, a person must enter the coupon code HOLIDAY30 when purchasing a book on the Haymarket website.

And then I hear that one of the two edited volumes has just appeared: The Future of the Biblical Past, this one edited with Fernando Segovia. Keeping my hand in biblical criticism (which is really a part-time concern these days), this 400 page collection seeks to map the current status of biblical criticism world-wide and peer into the future. Contributors come from every populated continent on the globe.

The other edited volume due out shortly is Ideology, Culture, and Translation (with Scott Elliott).

Finally, just to keep things ticking over, Haymarket is rushing out the paperback of the big book on Marx and Engels: Criticism of Earth: On Marx, Engels and Theology (volume four of The Criticism of Heaven and Earth Series). The hardcover with Brill has only just appeared. The paperback is due out in April, but already Amazon and Fishpond are offering serious discounts, up to 34% on pre-orders.

P.S. Lenin, Theology, and Religion (over 400 pages) has just gone into production with Palgrave Macmillan and should be out next year.

Loosely, Critica del cielo, critica della terra might be described as a ‘translation’ (by Sara Farris) of Criticism of Heaven, except that it was completely rewritten, the chapters are different and it is a good deal more compact. But here is a review of the Italian book in Il Manifesto

The Sacred Economy of Ancient Israel

Criticism of Heaven and Earth (paperback)

The complete five-volume set, available from Haymarket Books at a very reasonable price (click on the image).

Marxist Criticism of the Hebrew Bible

Completely revised and largely rewritten. Published by Bloomsbury and available now in various formats on their webpage (click on the image).

Idols of Nations

The new book, by Christina Petterson and me, on the biblical roots of capitalism. Click on the image to order from Fortress Press.

Lenin, Religion, and Theology

Published by Palgrave Macmillan, with a discounted version if you click on the image.

Nick Cave: A Study of Love, Death and Apocalypse

25% discount on paperback: click on image and enter RBOER as discount code. This is the first critical monograph on Nick Cave, focusing on his engagements with religion in music, novels, plays, films and poetry.